The grassy nature of the pitch used for the final Test between India and South Africa changed to a 'misbehaving' one on the third day's play as cricket experts called it dangerous to play on, urging the International Cricket Council (ICC) to take strong notice.

Virat Kohli ducking under a bouncer during the third day's play in the Wanderers Test (PTI)

The grassy nature of the pitch used for the final Test between India and South Africa changed to a 'misbehaving' one on the third day's play as cricket experts called it dangerous to play on, urging the International Cricket Council (ICC) to take strong notice.

Divets seem to be coming out of the track on occasion as both Murali Vijay and Virat Kohli got hit dangerously in the first session of play on Friday and it irritated the India captain who brought the issue to the attention of on-field umpires Ian Gould and Aleem Dar.

The issue escalated when fast-bowling legend Michael Holding gave the track 2/100 while doing commentary.

It was followed by a series of tweets by former players and experts.

"The ICC must look into it," tweeted Harbhajan Singh, while former Australia batsman Dean Jones called the pitch a "pile of crap".

Interestingly, former India captain Sourav Ganguly had raised questions on the nature of the Wanderers track during the first day's play itself. "To play test cricket on this surface is unfair ...saw it in NZ in 2003 ...batsman have minimum chance ..icc should look into it," he responded to a tweet on his timeline.

India began the day at 49/1 and were reduced to 57/3 as Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel removed KL Rahul (16) and Cheteshwar Pujara (1) respectively. Vijay (25) was then bowled in the last over before lunch by Rabada.

But what raised eyebrows was that on one occasion, a ball scooted through the track staying as low as one-third of the stump height, while another couple of times it rose awkwardly to hit Vijay and Kohli.

Vijay was hit in the midriff and Kohli got struck smack on the hand on a good length ball.

India, who have already lost the three-match series 2-0, were 100/4 at lunch and leading the hosts by 93 runs.